


Enraptured

by Omera_the_Magical_Jester



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: ?? - Freeform, All like flashbacks in the same scene, But slight differences, Canon Compliant, Crimson Flower Route, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Ferdinand is physically hurting, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Chronological, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Self-Doubt, Sick Character, Sickfic, Told through several memories, but only kind of?, spoilers for Crimson Flower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22319272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omera_the_Magical_Jester/pseuds/Omera_the_Magical_Jester
Summary: After years of fighting for Edelgard and justice throughout Fódlan, Hubert realizes what he’s really wanted this whole time.However, that someone lays struggling beside him despite what they’ve been through. Hubert has time to reminisce on how he even got the glorious man beside him.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/Petra Macneary (Implied), Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra, Linhardt von Herving/Caspar von Bergliez (Implied), There is no indication of this whatsoever but:
Comments: 2
Kudos: 92





	Enraptured

**Author's Note:**

> So this might be a lil weird, but like when students go to Garreg Mach, they get partnered up by Rhea’s “full-proof” soulmate plan. She basically decides who they’ll marry and/or live with for the rest of their lives through “the power of the goddess”. I don’t know why this happened, maybe it’s a way to control crests and the people from within? Either way, it’s a reason to have Ferdie and Hubie stuck together from Garreg Mach to forever. :)
> 
> P.S. This is formatted really weird as a heads-up. Hubert’s way of thinking is very roundabout here.

The low whistling sound persisted in the night. Hubert never said anything about it because he knew the resulting argument would be pointless. Just a couple drops of eucalyptus in the incense without alerting the person beside him was enough.

Yet tonight, as the Black Eagle Strike Force camped just outside of Faerghus poised and ready for attack, the wheezing persisted. 

Their professor had finally returned to them three months prior. With her by Edelgard’s side, the Imperial Army has made leaps and bounds in the long and horrid war. Hubert was secretly overjoyed to have Byleth back and to see how happy she made his lady. He always knew that was why... back then...

A sputtering cough jolted Hubert from his memories. He cast a worried glance at his “life partner” who clutched the neck of a nightshirt and sweated from a nightmare. Life partner, Hubert mused on that and his relationship as he looked around their tent for a cloth to dampen. At Garreg Mach Monastery, the students were assigned to dorm with their life partners, someone who would be by their side for the rest of their lives no matter the nature of their relationship. Some people met their best friends, others their spouses, some had no one to share a room with at all. In the beginning, Hubert had wished that was him. He and his roommate chosen for him by that dastardly Church of Seiros despised each other, as they often had as children. 

Hubert dabbed the frowning brow beside him with a cool, damp cloth. “You’ve lasted this long, damn you. Just a little longer and we will be leaving this cold behind. We can even go with Petra to Brigid if you would like, mayhap it would suit you better there?” What were they? Friends? Definitely now after all those tea and coffee meets. Lovers? Hubert was sure of that one after many devastating battles and sinking hearts. But were they meant to be each other’s, meant to be in love, meant to be continuously falling into each other’s arms and holding the other up? He hoped so. He hoped, for once, that Rhea was right. 

At the Academy, Hubert remembered that Archbishop Rhea partnered them all up on the day they arrived at the Monastery. None of the Black Eagle house seemed too ecstatic over her choice. Edelgard had been paired with Caspar, who was already sure about his life partner, and she was loathe to share her space with the brute. Caspar’s so-called partner Linhardt was paired with a songstress, Dorothea, who hated nobles, which Linhardt was. Dorothea made fast friends with Petra, a foreigner from the country Brigid, who was partnered with Bernadetta, who simply wanted to be alone. Then there was Ferdinand.

Ferdinand was always optimistic and bright, his presence filled the room he was in. It was impossible to ignore the boy with how boisterous and intrusive he was. Flowing orange locks and sparkling amber eyes enraptured many nobles and commoners and only served to make him more confident, more sure of himself, and more annoying. Ferdinand von Aegir, his name was Ferdinand von Aegir and don’t you dare forget that. Hubert used to loathe the boy for all the reasons many loved him, because, for all his peacocking about, Ferdinand was a noble who genuinely believed in chivalry and kindness above all else. The most noblest of nobles, Ferdinand von Aegir.

Ferdinand von Aegir groaned weakly next to him now. Hubert ran his long and scarred fingers through the soft locks of hair that now trailed far past his shoulders. He smiled softly when the man leaned into his touch. “It’s alright, I am here,” Hubert whispered. He stared at his Ferdinand’s sweat-stained and scarred body, the war for Fódlan had taken its toll on everyone. The fiery hair became his halo, one that everyone had recognized but Hubert so long ago. The cheeks still rosy and full of life which he stroked possessively. Strong, broad shoulders and sturdy pecs from studying the lance. Thick and muscular thighs from riding horseback all his life. Ferdinand had a the body every man wanted and he was as beautiful as every woman wished she could be. Hubert was a lucky man, especially because Ferdinand came with a heart of gold. How else would he accept such a cruel man like Hubert?

Before, Ferdinand and Hubert fought wherever and whenever possible. They were to be Edelgard’s right and left hands once she became Emperor of Adrestia. From childhood they were trained to be Prime Minister and Minister of the Imperial Household respectively. They shared goals, many childhood experiences, and even friends once Hubert got to know the rest of his class. Yet they often bickered about anything and everything. At first, it had just been about how Ferdinand felt the need to challenge Edelgard at every chance he got, even to the point of trying to finish his meal before her. Then, about how Hubert seemed to exist solely to serve Edelgard, as if he had no free will Ferdinand had said. They were admittedly both intemperate about their future ruler. Neither quite understood the motives of the other. Ferdinand wanted to ensure that they were both on equal footing (maybe to surpass her) so that they may flourish with together. He wanted to assist her by getting to know her strengths and weaknesses so he could give her proper advice in the coming years. Hubert had always been by Edelgard’s side and wished for nothing but for her greatest aspirations to come true. He was ready to move any mountain to make up for what he couldn’t do many years before, when she needed him most. In a way, they both wanted to help her but were so caught up in their way that they refused to see the other’s. But tea, coffee, and time fixed that.

They still do bicker from time to time, but that is their nature and their duties. Times like this, however, made Hubert dread every moment he spent not kissing Ferdinand’s knuckles and not whispering into Ferdinand’s ear just how much he loved him. If Ferdinand was not his true love, then Hubert would never want to experience it. Ferdinand is enough, has always been enough. 

Ferdinand rolled in his fitful slumber to embed himself against Hubert’s leg. His body was abnormally warm for the Faerghus cold. Hubert cradled that hot head gently. The war would be over soon, the very war that truly brought them together first and comrades then as lovers. He still remembers when Ferdinand chose the Empire, chose _him_.

The stale smell of the Holy Tomb still fills his nostrils even now. He and Edelgard had been preparing for this day for so very long. But when he looked into Ferdinand’s curious eyes, Hubert was unsure of whether he could battle if it meant fighting that boy. Luckily, he would not have to. Edelgard asked for him to be ready to assist with a potential retreat as she was sure they would have to fight the professor.

The look of betrayal on everyone’s faces when they realized that Edelgard was the Flame Emperor stung. What was worse was the fact that Ferdinand didn’t seem surprised, just disappointed. As if he had been praying to that figment of a deity that it wouldn’t be her, couldn’t be her. But of course he knew.

They all battled valiantly albeit half-heartedly. None of the Black Eagles wished to harm each other. Even Hubert hoped they would turn to their side, despite refusing to get buddy-buddy with any of his classmates at first. Rhea shrieked and screamed from where she stood at the goddess’s throne, her face red from anger and mouth frothing with hatred. Ferdinand was the only one who rushed across the field with the same vigor. Hubert could tell, he needed to know what Edelgard was thinking, what she had been hiding this whole time. Hubert fought hard to restrain himself. At the time, Edelgard must have thought that he wanted to attack back, she couldn’t have been more wrong. Every time Ferdinand, a boy he had resolved to hate, was injured, Hubert growled. It took everything in him to not decimate their own forces as his friends swept across the field. 

Then, Edelgard was defeated. They had anticipated this, yet it came far quicker than they would have liked. The hurt in their friends eyes was unbearable, but Hubert’s facade never dropped. _They want to come to her_ , a voice in his head whispered. Ferdinand met his gaze with tired eyes, gemstones that would only lose more of their luster in the years to come, _He wants to come to **you**_.

“You have disappointed me, Edelgard,” the raw fury and loathing in Rhea’s voice was still ever present in Hubert’s mind. It was as if the entire room had shaken in fear of the rage in her.

“So it is my teacher who stands in my way. I always knew it would come to this,” Edelgard kept a steeled expression, but inside she yearned for the professor. It truly hurt Hubert to hear the edge of sadness in her voice.

Rhea turned to Byleth and ordered without hesitation, “Professor. **Kill** Edelgard at once.” The command sent a ringing sensation through Hubert’s head. The way the professor seemed to actually consider it twisted like a knife in his gut. Hubert warped over to Edelgard’s side, ready to take her away.

“Wait. You cannot be serious!” an incredulous voice had rung out, echoing throughout the tomb as if to stabilize it. 

Ferdinand stepped forward and spun to face Rhea, wiling turning his back on the traitors they had been fighting earlier. He placed his hands on his hips like he was just telling off someone for not following proper noble conduct rather than Archbishop Rhea, more of a monster than he knew. “You would just... just slay Edelgard?! And you expect her teacher to do so and her peers, her **friends** , to stand by and simply watch?! You must be out of your mind, Lady Rhea!”

Rhea snarled and her left eye twitched. She lifted her head and sneered down her nose at Ferdinand. “You..” venom poured from her lungs, “A devout follower such as yourself would **DARE** TO STAND AGAINST THE CHURCH?” For his credit, Ferdinand did not flinch. Instead he steeled himself, prepared to defend his new Emperor. “I would have **your** head too, boy! To point your blade at the church is the highest of crimes! PROFESSOR! KILL THEM!”

Ferdinand slashed his arm out in a wide gesture, “I am a devout follower of the **Goddess**! Not the Church of Seiros! Better yet, I am Ferdinand von Aegir, the future Prime Minister of Adrestia! As such, it is my duty to serve the Emperor. I will protect her from those who would oppose her!” His voice was so full of conviction, his eyes so hardened and passionate, and, even now, he wore a determined smile despite his clear unease to stand against the Archbishop.

Slowly, their friends began to move forward, spurred on by Ferdinand’s outburst. Edelgard lifted her head higher. She was shocked, as was Hubert. They went into this expecting their friends to never be able to forgive them. Yet one by one they joined Ferdinand in forming a barricade around Edelgard. Ferdinand turned his head to smile at Hubert. He smiled at him! It wasn’t his loyalties, his noble righteousness, or even Edelgard that Ferdinand chose this war for. Ferdinand chose Hubert, they had reached an understanding, Ferdinand was free from the Church’s reigns because of him. Something in Hubert soared up into his throat, it was warm and soft and loud.

The professor looked at her feet, “I should have known,” they said in their monotone voice. All the students flinched. Byleth stepped forward and then raised her gaze back up. A small smile decorated her face, “that I taught you all well.”

Rhea screeched incredulously. “You... you would turn against me too?! Then, you are unworthy of the power of the GODDESS! I WILL RIP OPEN YOUR CHEST AND TAKE BACK YOUR HEART MYSELF!” 

A green glow swirled around Rhea as her screams grew more and more distorted. Once the light cut, the was an enormous white-grey dragon standing before them snarling. “Heh, that must be the Immaculate One,” Hubert knew it was her, but it was a shocking reveal none the less. He instinctively put a defensive hand on Edelgard, and then Ferdinand. 

“Yes,” Edelgard said, “one of the monsters ruling Fódlan behind the scenes. Rhea is their leader.”

“Are we gonna fight it?” Caspar asked excitedly.

“No, we should get out of here for now,” Hubert shushed the boy. The professor nodded and they were all warped to a safer location. 

Once there, everyone began sobbing. “That was terrifying,” Bernadetta quaked. Dorothea hugged her close and choked out, “But at least we’re all together still.” Even Linhardt was wracked with heaving breaths and he sobbed into Caspar’s shoulder. Suddenly, Hunert’s arms were trapped around his body by something warm and certainly stronger than him. When he whipped his head to see who or what it was, he had his first kiss taken.

“Hubert... I am so very glad to be here... with you,” a man, short of breath whispers to him. His breathing still ragged, both men had a gentle blush spreading across their faces. 

Hubert pets his soft hair once again, “I am glad as well,” and awkward young man stutters, “Thank you for choosing us, Ferdinand.”

Hubert wipes away the tears forming on Ferdinand’s cheeks, the gentlest he had ever been with anyone aside from Edelgard. Ferdinand sniffled and grabbed his wrists, he had been so brave for them. He deserved more than this horrid war, but that was why they were fighting in the first place was it not?

“Aw, you two are very adorable!” Petra giggled. 

Hubert and Ferdinand jumped away from each blushing tomato red. Everyone was laughing lightly, even the professor. “I never thought I’d see the day,” Edelgard chuckled.

Hubert glared at everyone but nit even Bernadetta stopped. When he looked, Ferdinand was chuckling softly as well, so he softened up. His gaze shifted from murderous to reluctant happiness despite the danger they were about to march into.

More coughing, it sounded wetter. At this point Hubert had no idea whether Ferdinand was getting better or worse. It started sometime after a particularly brutal campaign in the north two years back. Only half of his troops made it out alive. Ferdinand took that loss especially hard. When they returned, Ferdinand began to have trouble breathing. In front of others, all seemed well. Behind the doors of their shared room, Ferdinand clutched the front of Hubert’s shirt, gasping for a single breath to claw its way into his throat. 

Blood testing. Hubert remembered when he had finally gotten Edelgard back after they took her away. She became very ill for two weeks, breathing problems one of her many symptoms. He was sure that the bastard, the former Duke Aegir, Ferdinand’s own father, did this. That man hurt Edelgard, why not his own son? Hubert held Ferdinand as closely as that fateful day they started down this path. Ferdinand had always had this condition, but it must have been manageable before, otherwise Hubert would have known about it long before. 

Ferdinand has been fighting so very valiantly his whole life, like Edelgard, like Hubert, like all of them. And like everyone, his battle is very different. To think, the unstoppable Adrestian Empire had a Prime Minister and General with plagued lungs. Ferdinand never let it stop him, but it seemed that the cold worsened his condition. “Only a little while longer. Then the fighting will be done, the bloodshed too. We can go home and rest.”

How did they ever get here? How did Hubert ever fall so helplessly in love? If anything happened to his Ferdinand now, Hubert is sure that he would not be able to go on. Before he probably would have laughed and given his departed spirit some pity. He leaned down and kissed the soaking head snuggling into his thigh. “My dear Ferdinand, my leg will not make it any easier to breathe,” a small laugh escaped Hubert.

Finally, Ferdinand looked up at him. “I had a nightmare,” he croaked. 

Hubert gently brought his one true love up and leaned him against his pillow. “Please, darling, tell me all about it. But do not exert yourself, take it slow, we have time.”

“I am not a child, Hubert von Vestra,” Ferdinand gave him a weak smirk and took a shaking breath. It sounded awful but it was fuller and longer. He was going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to anyone who manages to make it through this! <3   
> Everyone who made it to the notes is automatically awesomer than they already were. Have a great day :D


End file.
